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Recipient of the National Book Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award, author of the renowned 1976 work The Woman Warrior, and the daughter of illegal Chinese immigrants, Maxine Hong Kingston discusses the real-life politics of genre -- how protecting her parents and family meant designating their personal histories as fiction.

"Being a poet means being human," declared the great Iranian feminist poet Forough Farrokhzad (1935-1967). Three leading Middle Eastern American poet-scholars - Mohja Kahf, Dunya Mikhail, and Farzaneh Milani - explore the complicated intersection of religion, gender, and political life through readings and discussion of their work and the work of the great female poets of their home countries—Iran, Iraq, and Syria—as a way to understand the evolutions and revolutions of the last fifty years.

Eliza Griswold, author of the poetry and photography compilation I Am the Beggar of the World: Landays from Contemporary Afghanistan discusses the form, content and importance of this traditional women's folk poetry.(Full Audio, approx 20 mins )

Join the Paideia Institute for its first poetry reading event featuring Christopher Childers and Henry Walters. We will hear from these accomplished contemporary poets about how they interpret or incorporate classical literature in their art.

The evening will include a reading and discussion of each poet’s approach to translation and the presence of the classical world in their work. Refreshments will be served.

Join Read Russia for a glass of wine, readings, and a conversation about particular challenges with certain works and authors because of the role language plays in the original texts.

Featuring authors and translators Ian Dreiblatt, Genya Turovskaya, and Matvei Yankelevich with their new translations of works by Nikolai Gogol, Daniil Kharms, and Arkadii Dragomoshchenko. Moderated by Melville House senior editor Mark Krotov.